Service-oriented Companies Research Articles

Spatial overlap: trade-offs in refugees’ residential choices

ABSTRACT Social science research gives rise to what we call the ‘refugee mobility puzzle’: While restrictions on the freedom of residence limit refugees’ socio-economic integration, those who do not face such restrictions often move to areas with high unemployment that similarly hinder their labor market prospects. This study addresses a central element of this puzzle: What draws refugees to high unemployment areas? We propose the spatial overlap hypothesis arguing that refugees in comparatively generous reception systems initially prioritize or are forced to prioritize non-labor-market resources such as affordable housing and proximity to social networks. Thereby they often settle in areas with general economic disadvantage as such areas frequently overlap with said resources. Based on the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees this study tracks residential histories of more than 2,400 refugee respondents across all German counties and postcodes. Discrete choice models show that preferences for cities, lack of affordable housing, the presence of small, service-oriented companies, and co-ethnic communities explain refugees’ gravitation to disadvantaged areas. These results support the spatial overlap hypothesis and suggest that recently approved refugees face trade-offs: area characteristics that are initially attractive tend to spatially overlap with such that likely inhibit longer-term integration prospects.

Small talk as relational practice during assessment

This paper explores small talk as relational practice in performance appraisal interviews between managers at the Belgian headquarters of a small-sized service-oriented company and their sales agents who work remotely around the world. On the basis of a dataset of 14 online video-recorded appraisal interviews and two follow-up interviews with the managers, we examine by using a turn-by-turn content analysis the occurrence and function of small talk as relational practice within the specific interactional context of performance appraisal interviews. The findings show that within this specific virtual workspace context, the communicative purpose of performance appraisal interviews transcends assessment, as the managers make use of small talk to fulfill the additional aim of instilling the company’s corporate culture and personal approach in its employees. We reflect on the meaning of relational practice in the workplace and argue that the communicative purpose of such interactions is broadened so as to adapt to the globalized needs of modern companies.

Assessing Leadership Styles' Influence on Organizational Performance: A Case Study of Service-Oriented Companies

This study investigates the influence of various leadership styles on organizational performance at Company XYZ, a service-based company. The importance of this research lies in the role of leadership as a key factor in enhancing company performance and competitiveness. Using qualitative approaches and a case study design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 managers and employees, participant observation over three months, and document analysis. The results show that transformational leadership styles significantly improve organizational performance by increasing employee motivation and engagement. In contrast, transactional leadership also has a positive impact, but its effectiveness is limited to operational contexts and short-term targets. Conversely, laissez-faire leadership styles negatively correlate with organizational performance, highlighting the need for direction and support from leaders. Mediating factors such as effective communication and an organizational culture that supports innovation reinforce the positive relationship between leadership style and organizational performance. This research provides valuable insights for leaders at Company XYZ on the importance of choosing an appropriate leadership style and emphasizes the role of communication and organizational culture in achieving success in a competitive business environment.

Collaborative servitization in service-oriented company: The case study of telco company.

There is a growing interest in the subject of product-service system (PSS) and collaborative servitization in academia and practice. However, the focus is on exploring the growth of manufacturing companies without specifically analyzing the growth of service companies in applying PSS. There are companies, especially in the telco industry, that expand their service business to complex bundles of products and services. The paper investigates PSS in the service company and the role of collaboration in different PSS development phases: idea generation, development and go to market phase. The study adopted case-based research conducted in international Telco organization. The research demonstrates how a company creates and commercializes integrated packets of products and services, it identifies partners company works with and the benefits and challenges of their cooperation. The study addresses collaboration with customers and identifies five different customer profiles according to their openness to participate in the development of PSS. The study highlights the importance of (1) collaboration models, (2) customer involvement, and (3) strategic focus in successful application of collaborative servitization. The findings complement the literature for collaborative servitization and offer concrete input for companies in terms of how to better organize business, profit from collaboration models and gain market advantage.

Improved Random Forest Based on Grid Search for Customer Satisfaction Prediction

Customer satisfaction is an important influencing factor that affects the survival and development of an enterprise, especially a service-oriented enterprise, then predicting customer satisfaction can achieve a continuous and steady improvement of customer satisfaction of an enterprise. In this paper, we improve the random forest algorithm based on grid search, and use the improved random forest model to predict airline customer satisfaction scores and rank the importance of customer satisfaction influencing factors by minimizing the average root mean square error of the model as the goal of the preferred parameters. The research results show that airlines should focus on Online boarding, In-flight Wi-Fi Service, Type of Travel and Class when improving customer satisfaction, which provides a reference for service-oriented companies to improve their economic efficiency.

Pelayanan dalam Perusahaan Perspektif Islam

One of the factors contributing to the growth of a company lies in the services provided and the marketing strategies employed by the company. This research examines the topic of Service in a Company from an Islamic Perspective. Utilizing a literature review approach, the obtained data is qualitatively analyzed and then presented descriptively, outlining, depicting, and explaining in accordance with the issues closely related to this research. The research findings reveal that services should be conducted in accordance with Sharia principles. To ensure that services in a company from an Islamic perspective are more focused, especially in service-oriented companies, all parties involved must adhere to guidelines and principles set forth in Islamic teachings

Risk Influence of Employee Productivity on Business Failure: Evidence Found in Serbian SMEs

This research paper analyzes low productivity of company workforce as the key risk factor to business sustainability of a company, with special attention to small and medium-sized companies. The scope of research involves for-profit, and small and medium-sized companies doing business in Serbia. This paper explores whether poor human resource management, and, more particularly, low productivity of employees represent one of the key reasons for poor business performance and eventually failure of the company. The quantitative part of this research was conducted during 2022, by analyzing 468 small and medium-sized companies with less than 250 employees, who ended their business during 2021. Current theory determines human resource management in companies, the influence of different sorts on overall business performance, and employee productivity and its causal effects on business survival. This study attempts to cover identified literature gaps by analyzing the risk influences of low productivity on the failure of small and medium-sized companies, with special diversification between manufacturing and service-oriented companies. Key findings from this research were defined with the help of statistical learning methods, suggesting direct correlation of low productivity in the case of small services-oriented businesses and medium-sized manufacturing companies. Future work on this research includes extension of the analysis to other countries in the West Balkans region and the comparation of all determined causalities.

УПРАВЛЕНИЕ РАЗВИТИЕМ КОМПАНИИ НА РЫНКЕ ПОСРЕДНИЧЕСКИХ УСЛУГ ПО ОБУЧЕНИЮ ЗА РУБЕЖОМ

The purpose of the article is to conduct strategic studies on the development of intermediary organizations for training abroad. The object of the study is the organization of Guangzhou Global Bridge International LLC, the subject is its development strategy. Research methods: analytical, observational, inductive, case analysis. We analyzed the experience of strategic development of intermediary or service-oriented companies, the current situation and shortcomings of Guangzhou Global Bridge International LLC in the process of its activities and management. Based on the analysis of the internal and external environment, a strategy for the development and management of society and development goals was selected and positioned. Recommendations and measures have been developed for the development of the company.

Cyberloafing to Escape From the "Devil": Investigating the Impact of Abusive Supervision From the Third-Party Perspective.

PurposePrevious studies on cyberloafing focus on individual and organization factors, ignoring the situation of employes as the event observers. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), the present study proposed a theoretical model for the relationships among peer abusive supervision, negative affectivity, cyberloafing, and hostile attribute bias, which aims to bridge the above research gap.MethodologyMultiwave data of 355 employes from 8 service-oriented companies in Southwest China supported our model. Time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis test.FindingsThe empirical results indicated that peer abusive supervision was positively related to third party’s cyberloafing, and the third party’s negative affectivity plays a mediating role among the above relationships. In addition, the third party’s hostile attribution bias moderated the mediating role of third party’s negative affectivity. Specifically, the effect of peer abusive supervision on third party’s negative affectivity and the mediating effect of this negative affectivity were stronger when the third party’s hostile attribution bias was higher.OriginalityDrawing on AET, the current study constructed a process model of third party’s cyberloafing reactions to peer abusive supervision, which helps explain the affective mechanism and the boundary conditions of the above “events-affectivity-behavior” path. Our model is a positive response to previous scholars’ calls for research of abusive supervision from multiple perspectives. Meanwhile, the current study explored the antecedent variable of cyberloafing from the perspective of event observers, which provides a theoretical basis for follow-up-related research. Thirdly, this study further expanded the theoretical boundaries of AET.

The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior.

PurposePrevious research on the service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees has mainly focused on the examination of its driving factors, and has ignored the consequences that it may bring to the workplace. To bridge this research gap, by shifting the focus to the event observers, a double-edged sword model is constructed in the present study, which helps explain whether, when, and why the service-oriented OCB of coworkers is contagious.MethodologyMulti-wave data of 239 employees from seven service-oriented companies in the hospitality industry in central and southwestern China were used to support the proposed model. The time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. OLS regression and the bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis testing.FindingsDrawing on attribution theory, it is argued that the contagion (vs non-contagion) effects of service-oriented OCB work through the dual cognitive pathways (hypocrisy perception vs serving self-efficacy) of observers, which depend on the self-serving attribution of the observers to the behaviors of their coworkers. Specifically, when the self-serving attribution of observers is high, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the hypocrisy perception of the observers, which in turn inhibits their own service-oriented OCB. In contrast, when the self-serving attribution of observers is low, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the serving self-efficacy of the observers, which in turn promotes their service-oriented OCB. This framework provides a valuable theoretical explanation perspective and empirical evidence for the exploration of how service-oriented OCB affects observers.

Intellectualization of personnel development management in high-tech service-oriented companies

The paper proposes an approach to managing the personnel development in service-oriented IT companies, which is based on a parametric model of training highly qualified personnel and implemented using intelligent algorithms. The parameterization of the training model is carried out on the rough sets theory. The implementation of intelligent algorithms required the following technologies: thematic modeling with additive regularization (Additive Regularization Thematic Model), a special environment for the current development of the configuration of information systems and the analysis of formal concepts (Formal Concept Analysis). The approach was developed as a set of techniques and implemented as a software library. The efficiency assessment was carried out on a dataset that contains the results of processing for 2,948 service requests processed by employees of a service-oriented IT company in 4 months. The results of the experimental evaluation showed that the use of the developed set of methods and the library of software tools increased the efficiency of the work of service engineers in terms of key indicators from 31 to 54 %. Application of the developed approach will make it possible to quickly adapt personnel qualifications in service-oriented IT companies in the context of a rapid change in production tasks and work environment without interrupting the work process.

Prerequisites for the adoption of AI technologies in manufacturing – Evidence from a worldwide sample of manufacturing companies

In current discussions, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ascribed great influence on production processes. Research on AI has seen tremendous growth in recent years. However, most of the research has focused primarily on various AI technologies, and less on prerequisites and enablers for adoption of AI at firm-level. This is surprising, given the fact that many companies are still struggling to establish AI in their production and to drive their AI adoption forward.To close this gap, this study analyses the impact of various technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) prerequisites for a successful adoption of AI technologies in manufacturing. Based on a cross-national survey of 655 company representatives from the manufacturing industry, our results contribute to a better understanding of why some companies are more determined than others when it comes to implementing AI in their production. We find evidence that organizational factors, such as digital skills, company size, and R&D intensity, have the greatest impact on the adoption of AI in manufacturing. Furthermore, in order to gain new insights into the interplay of new technology adoption and global production strategies, this paper addresses the question of which factors explain a primarily domestic or globally oriented technology adoption. We find that especially research-intensive, knowledge-based and service-oriented companies tend to roll out AI technologies not only at their domestic but also at their foreign production sites.

Don't Speak Ill of Others Behind Their Backs: Receivers' Ostracism (Sender-Oriented) Reactions to Negative Workplace Gossip.

PurposePrevious studies on negative workplace gossip have neglected the role of gossip receivers. The current study aims to explore the interpersonal interaction mechanism between gossip receivers and communicators. Drawing on social information processing theory, we propose a theoretical model for the relationships between negative workplace gossip, psychological safety, ostracism, and coworker-exchanges.Participants and MethodsMulti-wave data of 386 employees from eight service-oriented companies in China supported the proposed framework. Critical incident techniques and time-lag method were used for data collection. SPSS and Mplus were employed for hypothesis test.ResultsThe empirical results indicated that negative workplace gossip was positively related to gossip receivers’ ostracism (sender-oriented), among which receivers’ psychological safety (sender-oriented) played a mediating role. In addition, the coworker exchange relationship moderated the relationship between negative workplace gossip and ostracism, and the psychological safety of interviewees also plays a mediating role. Specifically, the effect of negative workplace gossip on psychological safety and the mediating effect of psychological safety were stronger when the coworker exchange relationship was higher.ConclusionDrawing on social information processing theory, the present study constructed a process model of the recipients’ sender-oriented ostracism reactions to negative workplace gossip, which helps explain the cognitive psychological mechanism and the boundary conditions of the above “perception-interpretation-behavior” social information process model. The above framework contributes to both theory and practice.

Digital Intellectual Capital of Russian Companies and its Impact on Financial and Innovation Performance

The paper aims to investigate the level of accumulated digital intellectual capital and investments in digital transformation in the Russian regions and study its impact on the gross regional product and companies’ revenue, as well as on the innovative activity of companies. The study relies on the multiple regression method to find significant relationships between digitalization and performance indicators in 85 Russian regions and cities of federal significance. The originality of the approach used in this study lies in the development of the digital capital theory: the authors assess the impact of accumulated digital intellectual capital and investment on the performance of manufacturing and service companies and show the difference in return on investment between sectors. The results of the study show that though Russian regions are at the initial stage of the digital economy development, digitalization has a significant positive impact on the financial and innovative performance. Manufacturing companies primarily use structural capital to create customer value. Service-oriented companies also receive a positive return on investment in human and relational capital. The results obtained can be applied in practice by the business community to support investment decisions and analyse the processes of creating digital intellectual capital in companies.

Customer Service Orientation has an impact on Organizational Effectiveness in IT and ITES industries

All businesses are customer-driven and market-driven. In this dynamic work scenario, customer-centric approach is very vital for any business model. A business which ignores the customer's request and managers who fail to hear from the customers will be ultimate losers. In this research work, the researcher has developed a model for customer service and proved that all the dimensions of customer service orientation are having an impact on organisational success. Customer problems are the opportunities for any sector, especially for the IT and ITES industries. Bringing new solutions to meet customer's demand is the major role of any IT or IT-enabled service-oriented company - network/data security, innovation, issues related to data backups and vulnerability. These problems can be solved through a dedicated technical team which should focus on customer requirements and complaints. In this research work conducted in selected IT and ITES companies of Bengaluru City, the researcher has framed eight dimensions namely attention, coaching, judgement, technical expertise, diversity, team work, communication skills and creativity. All these dimensions are employee-oriented skillset which is directly linked with the overall success of the organisation.

Integrating ESG factors in investment decisions by mutual fund managers: a case of selected Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies

This paper examines whether mutual fund managers incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when deciding which sector to invest on behalf of their trustees. In doing this, the top 20 South African mutual fund companies (asset managers) listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were selected. The paper identified the top 30 JSE listed companies (in the large industrial, equipment, and machinery sectors, excluding unlisted and service-oriented companies) where trustees’ funds were invested (with a total of 28 companies between 2007 and 2017) from the mutual fund companies’ Equity Fund Fact Sheets 2017 (representing recent investment focus). ESG data were collected from the integrated and sustainability reports at the sampled companies’ websites, and financial data were sourced from the IRESS database. This study adopted the panel data analysis. The results show an insignificant negative relationship between the ESG proxies (water usage, employee health and safety cost [number of work-related fatalities], percentage of women on corporate board) and return on equity (ROE). This means that the sampled companies disregard the United Nations Principle of Responsible Investment (UN PRI) guideline, suggesting that asset managers focus on increasing returns on shareholders’ investment without considering ESG issues. The paper concludes that the disregard for responsible investment guidelines does not encourage companies to improve their unsustainable business practices.

New adaptive EWMA control charts for monitoring univariate and multivariate coefficient of variation

The coefficient of variation (CV), a measure of relative variability, is an important quality control issue worthy of consideration in some manufacturing and service-oriented companies when the process mean is not constant and/or the process variance is a function of the process mean. In this paper, we propose two adaptive EWMA (AEWMA) charts for monitoring the infrequent changes in the CV and multivariate CV (MCV) when sampling from univariate and multivariate normally distributed processes, named the AEWMA CV and AEWMA MCV charts, respectively. With extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the run length characteristics of the proposed control charts are computed. It is found that the AEWMA CV chart performs substantially and uniformly better than the existing optimal EWMA and CUSUM CV charts when detecting moderate-to-large shifts in the process CV. Moreover, the AEWMA MCV chart also performs substantially and uniformly better than the existing Shewhart MCV chart. The proposed control charts are implemented on real datasets to support the theory.

Supply chain risk management: manufacturing- and service-oriented firms

PurposeA risk, when it occurs, causes negative effects on outputs. Typically, risks are not independent as multiple risks occur simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact various risks have on the performance of manufacturing-oriented and service-oriented firms from a supply chain (SC) perspective.Design/methodology/approachFirst, SC risks were identified and classified into two criteria: context and probability. Then, the different characteristics between manufacturing- and service-oriented firms were distinguished by the theory of goods-dominant logic (GDL) and service-dominant logic (SDL). Structural equations modeling and multiple-group analysis were then used to validate research hypotheses and compare the two groups.FindingsThe empirical evidence, gathered from the Vietnamese construction sector, indicated that in a serious situation all of the five risks proposed occur at the same time, thus the remarkable 87.1% variance in SC performance was explained. Furthermore, this rate is significant when the two groups are compared: manufacturing-oriented firms (88.3 percent) and service-oriented firms (85.6 percent), implying that risks in the manufacturing-oriented group have a greater effect on SC performance. While manufacturing-oriented companies should pay close attention to the operational and demand risks that adversely affect SC performance, they should treat information risk as an opportunity to improve. Service-oriented companies, however, need to manage supply risk which, in their case, can be attributed to a 51.2 percent variance in SC performance. Moreover, service quality can also be improved remarkably if information risk is well managed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a detailed picture of the relationship between risks and performance in the SC. Risks are illustrated as affecting the SC performance simultaneously, (not separately) and so the approach outlined here will give firms a comprehensive view of their SCs and provide guidelines for predicting the impact risks will have on the SC performance. Moreover, by comparing manufacturing- and service-oriented firms, a thorough overview of risk behaviors is provided and appropriate solutions for each type of company can be determined.Originality/valueThe “novelty of approach” of this study is in applying GDL and SDL theory to classify the manufacturing-oriented and service-oriented firms. The different characteristics between the two groups are identified and explained in terms of resources, value, network, effectiveness vs efficiency and communication, thus providing an insight into risk management activities in the SC network.

Developing and implementing circular economy business models in service-oriented technology companies

The service sector has the potential to play an instrumental role in the shift towards circular economy due to its strategic position between manufacturers and end-users. However, there is a paucity of supporting methodologies and real-life applications to demonstrate how service-oriented companies can implement circular economy principles in daily business practice. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the potential of service-oriented companies in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector to build and implement circular economy business models. To this end, the Backcasting and Eco-design for the Circular Economy (BECE) framework is applied in an ICT firm. BECE, previously developed and demonstrated for product-oriented applications, has been developed further here for applications in the service sector. By shifting the focus from a product-oriented approach to a user-centred eco-design, the paper shows how ICT firms can identify, evaluate and prioritise sustainable business model innovations for circular economy. The two most promising business model innovations are explored strategically with the aim of designing circular economy models consistent with the company's priorities of customer satisfaction and profitability. The findings suggest that ICT companies may be able to support the deployment of a circular economy in the service-oriented technology sector. Importantly, micro and small organisations can play a fundamental role if provided with macro-level support to overcome company-level barriers. Finally, the BECE framework is shown to be a valuable resource to explore, analyse and guide the implementation of circular economy opportunities in service-oriented organisations. Further research to verify the application of the findings to other service-oriented organisations is recommended.

REMONA Model for Improving Quality of Corporate Informatics Performance Management: How to Cut Cots in Corporate Informatics

Purpose: This paper studies the introduction or increasing of the ability to manage performance in an organization environment. The paper’s objective is to facilitate the solution of this problem. Its main goal, meanwhile, is to present the REMONA model and the results of its implementation and to spark professional discussion of the concept behind it.Methodology/Approach: A model will be created to demonstrate the use of the created artifacts within two sub-areas in the environment of two international companies (a consulting firm and an automotive firm) while using the proposed methodology. The model and the methodology will be evaluated for their creation in an organization environment and communication in the entire area.Findings: Pilot implementation was performed at two companies. It was proven that the proposed REMONA model makes it easier to process and analyze certain financial tasks that are presently considered crucial. The implementation of REMONA model will mainly find use in service or manufacturing companies.Research Limitation/implication: The REMONA model has only been tested and verified in IT services within service-oriented companies and the automotive industry.Originality/Value of paper: The paper is valuable for IT managers, and especially CIOs – Chief Information Officers – and project managers. They can find here inspiration for cost allocation, planning, and profitability management in IT services. The article also briefly presents practical experiences with the model’s implementation at two international corporations.